Miriam Margolyes: "I give people what they want and I love that moment when I stun them"

Just three weeks ago, I wrote here about the deluge of TV shows with a celebrity’s name in the title, lamenting the low-quality content on our screens. Right on cue, along comes a BBC Two documentary with Miriam Margolyes’s name up front and centre, in which she basically wanders around, chats to a few people and, in her unique fashion, gets through her day. Is the result sub-optimal fare? As with many things, it seems Miriam is the exception that proves the rule.

Simon Draper’s film, Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me, started out as a podcast until he, like everyone else, realised his subject is incapable of staying between the lines of any one format.

Thus, when she’s not entertaining a sold-out Sydney Opera House or giving a gentle bollocking to a reporter who exaggerated her bad health (“people might not buy tickets to the show”), she’s firing off birthday instructions to paying fans on Cameo (“it’s good to have opinions”), changing her knickers (“you’re not going to film this, are you?”) and imparting her singular jewels of wisdom. The result is an organic piece of film-making that rests singularly on the power of the personality at its centre.

And what a personality it is. When I contact Miriam to chat for this piece, she agrees that, despite a career that includes everything from voicing the Cadbury’s Caramel Bunny and a PG Tips chimp in 1980s ads to a Harry Potter turn and a one-woman show reciting Dickens, she is, in her 85th year, most famous for being simply Miriam. Does she consider herself a celebrity? “A minor one. I’m not Judy Garland.”

This being our children’s issue, what does she consider the magic ingredient of storytelling? As a veteran of Jackanory and Listen with Mother, she answers: “Commitment to the moment.” Thinking of her desire to shock, I wonder, is she herself a wise, grown-up child? “I’ve never been described so flatteringly and accurately,” she purrs. The shocks are well documented.

I hosted her at Cheltenham in 2024, when she thrilled in swearing the electronic subtitling system into silence. “I give people what they want,” she explains, “and I love that moment when I stun them. The audience expects.”

Her short height, her roundness and the contrast between her mellifluous RP tones and dockyard dialogue all add to the mix. “I’ve made use of everything I’ve been given” is her pragmatic take. The wisdom she carries more lightly. “I was just allowed to live a long time and, as long as you ask questions and you focus on the person you’re talking to, you should always be able to learn from experience.” Anything else? “I tell the truth. I’m not afraid.”

In the documentary, actress Sally Phillips reflects that Miriam makes it look OK to live with freedom and enjoy its riches. “The reward is that, when I go on stage, I hear that roar. It’s one of affection and recognition, and it’s incredibly moving to me.”

How does a self-professed “obese, Jewish, lesbian pensioner” hold crowds from Sydney to Cheltenham to the Graham Norton Show audience in the palm of her hand, while also beguiling strangers in shops? “I take each encounter as it comes. I can be affectionate, I can be demanding, I hope I’m always kind. My personality is manifold, and inconsistent, and I don’t care. I’m not hiding from you.” In this era of bland, blinking celebrity, Miriam Margolyes remains an exception, and exceptional.

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Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me airs at 9pm on Monday 13 April on BBC Two and iPlayer.

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